<p>So I have cut out schools from my decision but I am still struggling between the public/private university cost gap. I am a dual citizen of the U.S. and Canada so here are approximate costs for each school:</p>
<p>MIT $50,000/year
UWashington Honors $20,000/year
McGill University $17,000/year</p>
<p>My parents have appropriated $200,000 for schooling for me. I am thinking about going to medical school, which would be pretty expensive. Another option would be to go to graduate school, and since I would go into a medical-related field, I would not have to pay. If I spend all of the money now on undergrad at MIT, I would have to do MD-PhD if I wanted to go to medical school which would be another 3 years of school. If I go to UW/McGill and got into UW med school, I would have enough money for undergrad and med school. And if I decided not to go to med school, I could invest/save any left over money. Any suggestions? Is MIT really worth the money? Why or why not? Any advice would be appreciated! Thanks!</p>
<p>If you want to go to medical school I would definitely not go to MIT. Undergrad prestige is not a major factor in getting into medical school; a high GPA is more important. Don’t squander all your money on undergrad ;p</p>
<p>How certain are you that you want to be in Med school in 4 years? UWashington is the state school in Seattle, correct?</p>
<p>The points made above are true. GPA and MCAT score and demonstrated interest in medicine and interviews are the criteria used for Med school admission; not the quality of the undergraduate school attended. </p>
<p>OTOH the MIT undergraduate program is excellent preparation for the rigors of Med school. Also, you can take some of the premed courses over the summers somewhere else (like your local state school) with the ability to focus on one course at a time.</p>
<p>An option might be to work for a year or two after graduation to make some money to offset the cost difference. It would be a good time to study for the MCAT also.</p>
<p>Whether the private school’s cost is worth it depends on each individual. IMO MIT is a special place and a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. It opens doors that you never see most places. No matter where you attend, it is likely your outlook and goals will change in the next 4 years. If you’ve been on MIT’s campus (such as CPW) and felt you fit in, I recommend going for the Brass Rat.</p>
<p>I’ve been thinking about this situation all day.</p>
<p>Knowing what I know now about how much going to MIT affected my life, if someone with a time machine offered me $200,000 to go back and make a different college decision, I wouldn’t take the money. And for full disclosure, my parents and I both took on debt for me to go to MIT – we didn’t have a full college fund sitting around to pay for my education. It was worth it for me, not only in terms of outcomes (I wouldn’t be in the PhD program I’m in if I hadn’t gone to MIT, nor would I have met the love of my life), but also in terms of the way I learned and pushed myself and made wonderful friends. MIT made me smarter and more successful than I actually am, if that makes any sense.</p>
<p>Obviously this decision is different for everyone, and the fact that this post is completely about money and not at all about school environment tells me that maybe you didn’t really like the MIT environment at CPW. And if you didn’t like it there, then you shouldn’t go – MIT is a tough place to be if you’re not happy, and I wouldn’t encourage anyone who didn’t feel at home to go there.</p>
<p>But the PhD part of an MD/PhD doesn’t take three years, unfortunately – it’s more like five in the best-case scenario. (And I will editorialize, as a grumpy third-year PhD student, that doing an MD/PhD just to get med school for free is not really a good idea. Grad school is not fun and giggles for five years, to put it lightly.)</p>